Hello, I know this thread is a month old now but just wanted to add that within my mothers group there seems to be a big difference in terms of recovery from emergency c sections depending on whether mum had an epidural or not.

I had an emergency c section for a breech baby after a natural labour as baby had no plans to come out in stage two. It's only classed as an emergency c section as I was in labour, there was no actual emergency and took about 30-40 minutes to get to surgery after the decision was made. My recovery was really easy and quick, I felt fine the next day.

The mums I know who had an epidural then an c section for failure to progress describe the recovery from their emergency c sections as feeling like they were "hit by a truck" - and are very much looking forward to elective c sections for their second babies so they don't have to go through it again. I know this is only anecdotal evidence from a small group of people but if you are thinking about going into labour before having a c section, the method of pain control you use for the c section (epidural / spinal) may make a difference to your physical recovery?